


Simulacrum

by kelkblr



Category: Kingsman (Movies), The Smoke (TV)
Genre: Crossover Pairings, Jealousy, M/M, Mistaken Identity, Off-screen Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-27 00:01:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14413311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kelkblr/pseuds/kelkblr
Summary: Harry Hart is bored and looking for trouble. He finds Eggsy Unwin - or at least someone who looks very like him - and jealousy makes everyone do stupid things.





	Simulacrum

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sat on my hard drive forever, ever since I watched The Smoke. Set some time after the first Kingsman film and not TGC-compliant; some time after the events at the end of The Smoke.

As the doors slid closed and the Central line train pulled out of Bethnal Green, Harry allowed himself a small smirk at the announcement that there was disruption on the Metropolitan line. His impulsive decision to travel east and not out towards Amersham as he occasionally did when he felt like a little emotional masochism had proven to be correct.

Eggsy had been gone for exactly two days and Harry couldn't face sitting in the house knowing that he wasn't there. It felt faintly ridiculous to see it in those terms; Harry had lived alone for most of his adult life and his relationship with Eggsy was so new, so seemingly tenuous, that he could hardly dare to hang his hopes on it enduring. Yet here he was, sitting on a Tube train rattling through East London on a Saturday night in a pale imitation of the sordid adventures of his early twenties, because the alternative was moping pathetically around his house and trying not to think about what Eggsy might be up to in Majorca on what was almost certainly an extremely raucous holiday with Roxy.

Harry glanced around the carriage. It wasn't busy. The woman sitting across from him was reading a book, a younger man further down the carriage was frowning at his phone and looked like he was trying to restart it, and there was a teenage boy at the end of the carriage who kept eyeing Harry furtively.

Harry's pulse quickened a little as he considered the likelihood of the boy attempting to mug the out-of-place and well-dressed stranger. The boy might even have a knife, if Harry was lucky. It was juvenile to think of such things, of course, and Merlin would probably have harsh words to say about it, and Harry thought it was such a _shame_ that he'd severed the link from his glasses prior to leaving the house this evening.

The train slowed, rattling over the points as it pulled into Mile End station. The woman rose to her feet and moved towards the doors, and despite a quick, assessing glance the potential mugger showed no signs of going after her. Harry was just about to resign himself to a disappointingly uneventful journey when he saw, further down the platform, a sight that was both painfully familiar and entirely unexpected.

Harry would know Eggsy Unwin anywhere but the shock of seeing him _here_ , now, in a place he had no business whatsoever being, had Harry stunned just long enough that he nearly missed his chance and, as it was, he very nearly didn't manage to dive off the train before the doors slammed closed and the train pulled away. Panting hard - and Harry didn't need reminding how out of shape he was after so many months of inactivity - he stumbled off in the direction Eggsy had taken, up the steps and out of the station. Except-

-except there was no sign of him, of course. Eggsy had had a head start and Harry was feeling every year of the near-thirty year age difference between them as he stood outside the Tube station looking around in vain for any sign of the younger man.

A hundred and one questions were running though his head, starting with what the hell Eggsy was doing in London in the first place. Harry re-enabled his glasses.

"Yes, Galahad?" Merlin said cautiously, after only the slightest delay.

"I was under the impression Gawain was currently on rest leave out of the country," Harry said without preamble. He tried not to let anger colour his words. It wasn't his business; technically he had no right to ask Merlin about Eggsy's missions. Technically Harry himself wasn't even back on active duty; Arthur had made that very clear in his own carefully polite way, murmuring soothing words like _medical leave_ and _easing back into things_.

Merlin, though, could make exceptions to the rules. "He is."

Harry was regretting not wearing a warmer coat now; it was getting very cold. "Then why have I just seen him at Mile End Tube station?"

Merlin didn't say anything for a few seconds. "That's not possible," he said eventually. "Are you sure, Harry?"

The use of his real name set Harry's teeth on edge. He could guess exactly what the other man was thinking. "Very sure," he said through gritted teeth. "Check the CCTV."

"Give me five minutes," Merlin said briefly, and the link went dead.

Harry started walking down the road with no particular destination in mind, while he waited for Merlin to come back to him. There weren't many people about; it was that time of night when those with no plans for the evening were safely at home and those planning a night out were either already in a pub or bar or yet to leave home. And that was why Harry so readily spotted Eggsy again as he came out of a chippy on the other side of the road, carrying an open wrap of chips.

There was no mistaking him. He had to be on a mission; had to be. Harry didn't recognise the clothes Eggsy was wearing at all and he'd cut his hair shorter. He was moving a little differently too, somewhere between the brash swagger of old and the more graceful way of walking he'd gained since becoming a knight.

"Galahad," Merlin said in his ear, sounding strained. "I've pulled the CCTV."

"And?" Harry prompted, speeding up a little to keep Eggsy in sight. It was going to hurt in the morning.

"It looks a lot like Gawain." Merlin admitted. He hesitated, then added: "As far as I know, Galahad, he's not on a mission. I don't know what he's doing in London."

The silence that followed was damning. Perhaps, Harry thought, it was some confidential mission for Arthur. The new Arthur seemed more inclined to accept Eggsy into their ranks than Chester King would ever have been, and Harry had been out of the loop for long enough that he didn't know how much in Arthur's confidence Eggsy was. The other possibility was that this was some private endeavour of Eggsy's, or-

-or Eggsy's story of a holiday with Roxy, a boozy, platonic holiday in the sun, was an elaborate cover for something far more straightforward, something far more old-fashioned and sordid.

_No fool like an old fool, is there, Harry?_

"He doesn't have his glasses, and there's no tracker on him," Merlin confirmed. "Have you had any contact from him recently?”

"Not unless you count a few photographs of cocktails and sun loungers." And Harry felt foolish just saying it out loud. How easy would it have been for Eggsy to fake the appearance of an innocent holiday? Harry had lost his touch. "He's going into a pub." Up ahead, Eggsy had finished his chips and disposed of the wrapper and was heading into a pub that looked like the kind of drinking establishment that received regular visits from the police.

"You should go home, Galahad," Merlin counselled. "We'll sort this out later. No need for you to deal with it now."

Harry cut the link. Merlin was right, of course. Following Eggsy into the pub was idiotic: dressed as he was, he was going to stand out like a sore thumb and, if Eggsy was on a mission, his appearance would not be helpful.

But Harry had to know, one way or another. He went into the pub.

He regretted following Eggsy almost immediately. The pub was packed, and the clientele was every bit as rough as the exterior had suggested. The music was so loud it was impossible to hear any conversation and despite the early hour it was already hotter than a sauna. Harry hesitated in the doorway, only to get shouldered aside as the door opened behind him. He headed for the bar instead, reasoning that he might as well grab a pint, while he was here. Eggsy was always on at him about his alcohol consumption so this felt like a suitable response to the situation.

He was hideously overdressed for his surroundings, and he was aware that he was attracting unwanted attention. Pint in hand, he briefly considered and discarded the idea of finding a table before spotting a bar stool at the other end of the bar. Moving to it, he settled himself and took a sip of the - unsurprisingly disappointing - pint, while keeping an eye on the reflection in the mirror behind the bar.

Eggsy’s reappearance didn’t catch him by surprise, but he _was_ taken aback by Eggsy’s insouciant approach and the way the other man simply sat himself down on the recently-vacated bar stool to Harry, like he hadn’t been caught out in a deception of epic proportions. Harry knew he was staring but he couldn’t help himself: he’d always been a moth to Eggsy’s flame.

Eggsy leaned a little towards Harry, a small smile on his lips as he said:

“Come here often, do you?”

Harry had to raise his voice to be heard over the music. “That’s a terrible line.”

Eggsy looked Harry up and down, a bold, speculative gaze that made it difficult for Harry to remember why he’d been angry with the other man in the first place. “Did it work?”

_What game are you playing, Eggsy?_ he thought. “I didn’t expect to see you here,” he said.

Eggsy leaned in a little closer, his fingertips grazing Harry’s sleeve. “Could say the same. You don’t look like a local.”

_Neither do you_ , Harry thought. There was a tightness around Eggsy’s eyes, a tension in his jaw. That worried Harry: it had been a while since Eggsy had last looked like that. Was it because Harry had caught him out on his lie, or was he in the middle of some mission so secret that even Merlin didn’t know about it?

“Perhaps I’m playing tourist.” It was a struggle to keep his voice neutral, especially when Eggsy’s hand fell to his knee. Harry realised he was staring stupidly at Eggsy’s fingers and he made the effort to look up, to look into Eggsy’s eyes-

-Eggsy’s eyes but somehow _wrong_ -

-and Eggsy’s hand was abruptly knocked off his knee as someone pushed their way between the two of them, slamming Eggsy against the bar and nearly knocking Harry off his stool.

“What the _fuck_ ,” Eggsy yelled. Harry would have been more concerned if he wasn’t so sure of Eggsy’s ability to handle just about any situation he found himself in, but something wasn’t quite right: Eggsy wasn’t deescalating the situation and he wasn’t defending himself the way he’d been taught either. Instead it looked like descending into a messy and far too public brawl between Eggsy and whoever this interloper was, so Harry took the only avenue open to him: he leapt to his feet, grabbed hold of Eggsy’s attacker, twisted his arm behind his back, and quickly manoeuvred him around the corner of the bar and out through the fire door into the alleyway beyond, Eggsy close at his heels.

Except Eggsy wasn’t helping out as Harry shoved the attacker against the facing wall. For some reason he was shouting at Harry, and it took Harry a moment to register what the other man was saying.

“-you fucking psycho, let him go.”

“He attacked you,” Harry pointed out; reasonably, he thought.

“Get the fuck off me,” the attacker snarled. He was stronger than he looked. Attractive, too, Harry noted almost idly. Pre-Eggsy, he might have been interested.

“He’s- yeah, he’s an idiot,” Eggsy said. He sounded oddly resigned. “You can let him go, seriously.”

Harry spared him a glance, finally registering all the little things he should have picked up on earlier. The way Eggsy was looking at their attacker, the fierceness of the man’s reaction to Eggsy’s hand on Harry’s knee: a multitude of puzzle pieces clicking into place.

“Harry,” Merlin said urgently, very loud in his ear. He’d somehow worked out how to reinstate the link, which meant that Harry would have to find another way to frustrate him in future.

“Not now.” Harry looked at Eggsy again, and frowned.

“ _Now_ , Harry. It’s not-“

“You’re not Eggsy.”

It was the turn of not-Eggsy to frown. “Who’s Eggsy?”

 

The street was busier now. Harry had briefly considered going home on the Tube but, all things considered, a taxi seemed like a safer bet. It would give him some quiet time to contemplate how he was going to relate this evening’s events to Eggsy - because he knew Merlin would tell the other man if Harry himself didn’t and Eggsy would take the piss relentlessly if he heard it from Merlin first.

“So am I really like him?”

Harry glanced down at the young man next to him. He wasn’t identical to Eggsy, now Harry knew what to look for, but they were too similar for it to be mere coincidence and he didn’t even have to ask to know that Merlin would already be on with _that_ line of enquiry. “Enough to confuse me, Dennis,” he said tactfully.

"You been together a long time?"

Was Dennis judging him? Harry couldn't say he cared that much about the age gap between himself and Eggsy, but he took exception to people making an instant judgement without knowing either of them. "Not long enough."

Dennis nodded, like he’d heard and understood everything that lay behind those three words. “You thought he was seeing someone else?”

“I’m not really sure what I thought.” Harry considered it for a moment, before adding, “I suppose I was more concerned about him lying to me.”

“People lie for different reasons.”

It was an interesting response, Harry thought. He eyed Dennis speculatively. “And you?”

He blushed like Eggsy, Harry noted. It didn’t have quite the same effect on Harry though.

“Don’t know.”

“He seemed to make it very clear how he felt about our closeness.”

Dennis had the grace to look faintly embarrassed. Harry didn’t push it. They both knew why Dennis had been flirting with Harry.

“It’s not like- I mean, you’re well fit-“

“Please stop.” Harry resisted the urge to look at his watch. If he didn’t know better he’d suspect Merlin of delaying the taxi just to force Harry into extending this awkward conversation. “I think you need to have an honest talk with him, don’t you? It seems to me that both of you are dancing around the real issue.”

Dennis kicked at a discarded crisp packet on the pavement. “Things have been … difficult,” he said reluctantly. There was a lot going on behind those words, a Pandora’s box Harry wasn’t sure he wanted to open. He wasn’t exactly experienced at giving relationship advice anyway. “S’not that simple.”

“It has to be easier than you flirting with strangers to make him jealous,” Harry pointed out. “And him hiding behind a wheelie bin to watch you talking to said strangers.”

Dennis turned to look, and swore under his breath. “Yeah. Good point.” He looked back at Harry. “Thanks.”

“You’re very welcome,” Harry said, and it was a sincere thanks, not the superficial response Harry had used a thousand times to a thousand people over the years. “Look after yourself, Dennis, and-“

“Kev.”

“Him, yes.”

They shared a smile. Harry noted the Kingsman taxi turning into the road and he was both reluctant to break this fleeting connection and desperate to remove himself from a story that wasn’t his. Whatever was going on between the two of them, they had to sort it out for themselves.

Just like Harry had to come up with a _really_ good way of explaining all this to Eggsy before Eggsy came back from his holiday.


End file.
